Men in nursing – tipping the gender balance

Nursing Times delves into the topic of men in nursing and explores whether the profession needs a more gender-balanced workforce.

The issue has been highlighted recently by research on a gender “disparity” at senior levels, the introduction of gender-neutral children’s uniforms and campaigners wanting to see more men recruited.

Latest statistics show just 11% of nurses in the UK are male, showing that nursing is still a largely gendered profession.

Little seems to have changed since Nursing Times looked at the issue in 2008, when figures showed only one in 10 nurses on the register were male. Although there has been a rise in men entering the profession in the last few decades, it has been a small, slow one.